Oct 2019

Page 4 VOLUME 115 | ISSUE 121 | OCTOBER 2019 Plogging involves picking up plastic and other waste Established by H.H. Dr. Syedna Environment Wellness & Lifestyle Monthly Newsletter from surroundings while jogging. The activity has a two- Mohammed Burhanuddin (RA) pronged effect: Swasth and Swacchta, staying fit while keep the city clean. in 1992 To celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on 2nd October The Ambernath Municipal Council organized an India Plog Run and urged citizens to join it as a tribute to the Father of the Nation. These tree-planting drones are firing ‘seed missiles’ “Gone are the days when the world should view India into the ground. Less than a year later, they’re as an unclean place. Cleanliness must become a part already 20 inches tall. of our lives. We have always been particular about personal hygiene. In that spirit, let us also look at Technology is the single greatest contributor to climate societal hygiene and keeping our surroundings clean.” change but it may also soon be used to offset the damage we’ve done to our planet since the Industrial -PM Shri Narendra Modi Age began. Swachh Bharat Mission has created a tremendous impact across the nation, In September 2018, a project in Myanmar used drones cleanliness emerges at the forefront of public discourse today. Cleanliness was an to fire “seed missiles” into remote areas of the country issue very close to Mahatma Gandhi’s heart. He once said that cleanliness and where trees were not growing. The drones were sanitation is even more important than political independence! He also said that an designed by an ex-NASA engineer. Less than a year ideal village is one where there is perfect sanitation. He led by example, by later, thousands of those seed missiles have sprouted personally cleaning the toilets. into 20-inch mangrove saplings that could literally be a case study in how technology can be used to innovate Individuals, groups of people, large organizations, community service organizations our way out of the climate change crisis. and media have played an exemplary role in furthering the message of a Swachh Bharat. Lakhs of cleanliness drives, public meetings, seminars, ground level “We now have a case confirmed of what species we can initiatives have been taking place daily across the length and breadth of the nation. plant and in what conditions” says Irina Fedorenko, co-founder of Biocarbon Engineering. “We are now ready Sanitation, conservation of environment and animals; all these things were dear to to scale up our planting and replicate this success.” Gandhiji. Plastic is a major threat to all of them. So, we have to achieve the goal to eradicate 'single use plastic' from the country by the year 2022: says PM Modiji. BURHANI FOUNDATION (INDIA) Amatullah Manzil, 65 Bazargate Street, Fort, Mumbai-1. BFI and the Dawoodi Bohra community pay our tributes to the Father of the Nation. Recycled Paper Used We feel proud to be one of the leading participants in the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan Recycled Paper Used and doing our bit for the betterment of the environment and mankind. Phone: 22678480 / 22634326 Youtube: Burhani Foundation India Channel Website: burhanifoundationindia.org Facebook: Burhani-Foundation-India Email: [email protected] Twitter: BFI_environment Instagram: burhani.foundation [email protected]

Page 2 Page 3 The bacterial strains discovered by researchers at It has been just over a year since 16-year-old Greta Thunberg Shiv Nadar University have the potential to started her “school strike for climate” outside the Swedish decompose polystyrene - a key component in parliament in Stockholm. Since then she has spoken to increasingly Single-Use Plastic items such as disposable cups, large crowds, including most recently in Montréal. cutlery, toys and packaging materials. But there are many reasons why people are still talking about The bacterial species namely Exiguobacterium Thunberg’s September 23 speech at the United Nations Climate sibiricum strain DR11 and Exiguobacterium undae Action Summit. She spoke with knowledge, clarity and passion, well strain DR14 were isolated from the wetlands beyond her years. adjoining the university. What is especially significant about the talk is her inclusion of a critique of economic Polystyrene is quite resistant to degradation due to its high molecular weight and growth in the climate change story frame. “We are in the beginning of mass long chain polymer structure. \"Wetlands are one of the richest habitats of microbial extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic diversity but are relatively unexplored. Hence, these ecosystems are ideal grounds growth.” Thunberg said. for isolating bacteria with novel biotechnological applications. Our data support the fact that the strains discovered, are capable of degrading polystyrene and can be In the 12 months prior to Thunberg’s talk, there were 850 newspaper articles further used to mitigate the environmental pollution caused by plastics,\" said Richa (including opinion editorials and letters) with “climate change” in the headline. Of Priyadarshini, Associate Professor at Shiv Nadar University, Greater Noida, who these, 372 — or 44% — were related to the economy. And yet only one letter to the discovered the bacteria strains along with her team at the Department of Life editor raised concerns about economic growth in the era of climate change. This is Sciences, School of Natural Sciences. what makes Thunberg’s mention of “fairy tales of eternal economic growth” so remarkable — she put economic growth and climate change into the same frame. According to industry estimates, India consumes about 16.5 million metric tonnes of plastic annually. The All India Plastic Manufacturers Association (AIPMA) estimates It is easy to think that economic growth is essential; that we have always had growth that the plastic industry produces about 14 million metric tonnes of polystyrene, at the core of economic policy. But scholars point out that this is not the case. Bill which is non-biodegradable. This effects both terrestrial and marine life, for example McKibben and Peter Victor point out that our “fixation” on economic growth as an a plastic fork can take up to 450 years or more to decompose. In the universe of “explicit object of government policy” began in the mid-20th century. And in those 50 plastic items used daily, SUP constitutes about a fifth in volume. The finding assumes years, economic growth has not only devastated the planet, but also fostered significance in India given the recent announcement by the Prime Minister to inequity, insecurity and “is no longer making us happy.” In other words, we under- eliminate SUP by 2022. stand and act upon climate change based on what has been framed with the climate change stories we are told. \"Biodegradation is a process by which microbial organisms - mainly bacteria and fungi -- transform or degrade chemicals introduced into the environment. This is a Now it is time to frame climate change stories with eternal economic growth critiques. dream solution of breaking plastic in a natural process, making it biodegradable.\" the Now is the time for climate change frames, that question whether a finite planet can researchers noted. sustain eternal growth. This discovery may lead to eco-friendly alternative And now is the time to be grateful for a 16-year-old who sailed across the clean-up methods for plastic waste worldwide. ocean and dared to tell the world’s leaders that the fairy tale must end. Recycled Paper Used Recycled Paper Used